Ludography
70/100
Players2 ratings
84/100
Metacritic13 critic reviews
More scores
Metacritic usersuser score
76/100
GameFAQsTough
5/5
Player reviews
94% positive243 reviews
Steam Deck
Playable
Runs on
Windows
Price
US$6.99

Where to get it

Polybius cover

2017 · Jeff Minter · Arcade · Shoot 'em up

Polybius

PlayStation console exclusive

Polybius is the latest trance-shooter from the creators of Tempest 2000 and TxK, Llamasoft.

Also known as
Polybius.exe
Released
9 May 2017
Platforms
PlayStation 4PlayStation VRWindows
Genres
ArcadeShoot 'em up
Developers
Jeff Minter
Publishers
—
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Virtual Reality
Themes
Action
Country
United Kingdom
Age ratings
ESRB E10+PEGI 7
Languages
English
Time to beat
2.5hmain story4hcompletionist

About

Polybius is a 2017 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Llamasoft. It was released in May 2017 for the PlayStation 4, with PlayStation VR support available. A version for Windows was released in December 2018. The game takes its name and inspiration from the fictitious 1981 arcade game and urban legend of the same name.

It is also inspired by games like TxK and aims to induce the psychological state of flow. It was positively received by critics.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Llamasoft's Polybius is a fast-paced 3D shooting game with elements of racing games. The game's play was designed to minimize virtual reality sickness by the use of continuous forward motion with limited abrupt changes and no interruptions to gameplay other than controlled breaks at the end of each level; however, the game does include intense visuals. Although designed as a VR game, Polybius is fully playable in 2D on a standard PlayStation 4, and also includes support for 3D television output.

Development

In 2016, Llamasoft announced a game called Polybius for the PlayStation 4 with support for the PlayStation VR. Polybius was added on the PlayStation store on Tuesday May 9, 2017. In early marketing, co-author Jeff Minter claimed to have been permitted to play the original Polybius arcade machine in a warehouse in Basingstoke. He later more realistically stated that the game was inspired by the urban legend, but does not attempt to reproduce its alleged gameplay.

He said it was instead based on his interest in the ability of video games to induce the psychological state of flow (also called "being in the zone") and his own observations of positive psychological effects as a result of playing VR games, most notably the unreleased VR version of TxK. N. Runner, Zarch and quite possibly NanoTek Warrior.

Reception

Polybius received positive reviews from game critics. On review aggregator Metacritic, it holds an average score of 84 out of 100, based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Metro called it "one of the definitive action games of the current generation". Eurogamer awarded it a Recommended trophy, labeling it as "magical" as well as one of Llamasoft's best works.

The website also ranked it 44th on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017". The game was nominated for the Coney Island Dreamland Award for Best Virtual Reality Game at the New York Game Awards 2018.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

Releases by platform
PlatformReleasedRegions
PlayStation 49 May 2017Worldwide
PlayStation VR9 May 2017Worldwide
Windows21 December 2018Worldwide

Title IDsone per regional release, with its latest update

Title ids and disc serials by release
PlatformTitle IDRegionLatest update
PlayStation 4CUSA06495Europe01.03
CUSA08328North America01.03
CUSA09186North America—

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Collections2 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.